The case of Ashya King, the terminally ill boy whose parents removed him from hospital without doctors’ consent, has divided a nation. A Dundee mother who was in a similar situation says she understands the desperation that led the Kings to spirit away their own child. Andy Argo finds out more.
“If you are told your son is very ill and could die, you would do anything if you thought it would save his life.” These are the words of Jemma Bosch, 39, the Dundee mother who rejected the help available in the National Health Service to take her son Oliver to Italy for urgent treatment.
His condition was different and not as serious as Ashya King’s but Jemma can understand the predicament of Ashya’s parents, and said she would more or less have done the same as them.
Ashya King, 5, who has brain cancer, was removed from a hospital in England by his parents Brett and Nagmeh, who took him to Europe seeking treatment not available on the NHS. His parents were arrested in Spain on Sunday.
“Ashya King is a little boy who is clearly very ill and his parents seem to think proton beam treatment, which he can’t get in the UK, could save his life,” said Jemma.
“I can understand why his parents took him out of hospital in the UK to get this treatment abroad, but I don’t understand why they took him first to Spain.
“I’ve read that they took him there to sell their holiday home to pay for the proton beam treatment in the Czech Republic.
“Why couldn’t one of the parents have gone to Spain to sell their property and the other one stayed behind with him in hospital in Southampton, then they could all have gone to the Czech Republic for the treatment?
“If it was my son I would have taken him abroad for the treatment, even if it was against the advice of doctors in this country, but would have wanted to go straight there and not to another country first.
“When you are a parent and you are in this sort of situation, you are desperate. You would do anything to save your child’s life.
“I feel very sorry for Ashya’s parents for the plight they are in and because they now seem to be in trouble with the authorities for taking their son out of the country against medical advice and endangering his life.
“I hope that this business can end up as well as possible for them and hope more than anything that their son can get the treatment that will save his life.
“At the end of the day, this is surely all about their little boy and what is best for him.”
Jemma and her husband Ben’s own personal crisis came after Oliver was born three years ago. He seemed slow to respond to the world around him, especially to sounds, and doctors were worried.
Tests confirmed that he was born without auditory nerves and was facing a life of deafness.
The Boschs’ hopes were raised when they learned a hospital in Manchester could fit an auditory brain stem implant in a highly specialised intracranial procedure.
“The operation was not normally performed on young children. At that time there had been only six operations on youngsters of Oliver’s age and just three of these were successful,” Jemma explained.
“The three that were successful were performed by Professor Vittorio Colletti who came over from Italy to Manchester to perform the operations.
“We wanted the best chance for Oliver so decided to take him to Professor Colletti in Verona for the operation, and to raise the £60,000 that it would cost.”
With phenomenal public support the cash was collected and Oliver had the operation last year. The tiny implant with twelve electrodes was fitted and his parents are thrilled at his progress.
Oliver’s hearing development is gradual as his brain had to learn to respond to sounds, and it has not been without setbacks.
Jemma continued: “It was discovered that six of the 12 electrodes were triggering parts of his brain like his tongue, so it was decided to switch off these so that the six that work are linked only to his hearing.”
Oliver is hearing but will need more help for his auditory ability to reach full potential, and his parents have just brought him back from Los Angeles where he had the first of three sessions at a specialist speech therapy clinic.
The top medical experts in the world do not come cheap, however, and the Boschs have faced the twin challenge of finding the best treatment for their son and the money to pay for it.
Their trip to Los Angeles came with a price tag of £20,000. They still owe £4,000 of that sum and must soon start fundraising for the next round of treatment.
Now, they face the even more daunting prospect of having to raise £20,000 in each of the next two years so that Oliver can benefit from more vital therapy to get his hearing to the best level possible before he starts school in Dundee.
“The therapy is also about Ben and I being trained in techniques to help Oliver speak about what he hears. We also have to help his sister Darcey to feel involved.
“We don’t have the sort of money that all these trips cost so have to fund-raise like Ben climbing Mount Kilimanjaro later this year.
“We’ve received a massive amount of public support for which we are very grateful and we have also made our own sacrifices.
“I had to give up my job at the East of Scotland Breast Team service at Ninewells Hospital because I couldn’t work and take Oliver to all the appointments he had to go to.
“But if you have a child with a serious condition that needs special help, you do whatever you can.”